And taught them

Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, "Send there one of the priests whom you brought from there; let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the rituals of the God of the land." Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD. – 2 Kings 17v27-28

I had to stop here because I found this little event interesting. All of the Jews had been forced out of the land. All kinds of new nationalities had moved in. Jehovah was considered to by just another one of the gods and these people wanted to try out the ‘god of Canaan’ to see what he was like, but there was no one there to teach them.

So, as strange as it sound the king of Assyria had a priest sent back to Samaria to teach the people the ways of God and how to fear Him.

More on his mission tomorrow, but I want to just reflect on this early missionary for just a moment.

Put yourself in his sandals. All of your people have been moved out of their homes. There is no one left there who claims to know the Lord. The you are sent back to tell them about Him.

All alone. All by yourself.

An intimidating though, but a possibly encouraging one.

How many Christians are like this Jewish missionary? How many, as far as they know, are the only believers in their family or workplace or neighbourhood?

And yet this unnamed priest went to these pagan people who had only a cursory interest in what they considered to be a local god and he taught them to fear Him.

We are going to find out that his mission was not a success in man’s eyes, but that is not really the point. He went, and he served the Lord in a very lonely place.

Do we do the same?